Scaring students with junk science

Regarding the Saturday guest commentary, “On behalf of children, court orders clean air rule by state”: When I was young and impressionable in the early 1970s, the “scientists” of that era told us that we would be out of oil by the mid-1980s (global cooling was also the big scare at the time.) The public schools have a history of scaring children with junk science. So here we go again. It isn’t really Gabe Mandell’s fault in his youthful 14 years of age to believe that there is little hope for a healthy environment when he grows up. That is what he is being told in the public schools.

This idea of youths suing the Washington state Department of Ecology is not an original thought. It is being orchestrated by Dr. James Hansen himself (livescience.com, May 9.) James Hansen has a history of catastrophic predictions that have failed to come true. One example prediction he made in 1988 was that the west side highway in New York city would be under water in 20 years (Hansen later said he was misquoted and it should be 40 years.) Do a little research on this guy and see if any of his predictions of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming (CAGW) have come true. If his predictions are wrong, why is he credible? And as for Gabe, when he is 40 years older and my age, he will still be able to Google the west side highway and see it isn’t under water, just like I can still go to the gas station and fill ‘er up along with his mom, dad and the editors of The Herald.

Michael D. Anderson

Brier

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